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His words were an ice-cold wash to her heat. She drew in a sharp breath, hating the tremble in her voice.
“Last I checked we were both complicit.”
He tore his eyes from her, fixing them on a point far away, away from her, apparently unable to look her in the face.
“But I know better than to get involved with one of my clients. That was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
He got up and took the guitar inside, locked up the trailer and put out the fire before Lexi managed to rise to her feet.
She barely had time to pick up the shoes she had discarded before Kane was already heading toward the car, apparently eager to get away from her.
Her heart seized painfully.
What on earth had just happened?
14
The midnight sky was a cloud of ash and dust that rained down around him, choking his airwaves.
Everywhere he looked, there was agony and chaos.
Where the buildings had stood, there was now only rubble. His military squad so jovially singing the theme tune to Armageddon only moments before had been flung from the jeep and now lay in crumpled heaps among the dirt and debris.
Flashlights combed the area, civilians and soldiers alike fighting to locate survivors of the bomb that had violently exploded, though their beams had to compete with the thick wall of dust that littered the air, cloying their throats.
He struggled to see through the devastation, knowing that time was of the essence. Any survivors had to be found so that aid could be administered. The longer it took, the smaller their chance of survival…
Among the hazy beige dust, he spotted a burst of red. He moved closer only to discover it was the end of a detached limb. Bile rose at the back of his throat, but he forced it back down.
There was a ringing in his ears that sent the world spinning, making his reactions seem so slow as to be underwater.
“Help…”
The weak call had come from his left.
Kane spun, eyes scanning the area, inwardly cursing the darkness that had made spotting the bomb impossible and which was now heavily affecting his rescue attempt.
“I’m here!” Kane shouted, hoping his call would rise above the commotion. His voice sounded tinny to his own ears, that ringing distorting everything he could hear.
He wasn’t convinced he had heard anything at all… It could very well have been a hopeful illusion, his mind refusing to accept the idea that none of his squad had made it.
Surely, some of them were alive?
“Turner? Is that… you?”
It was one of his men! Hope surged anew, and with it came a burst of energy. “I’m coming! Where are you?”
“Here… Over here…”
He spotted a pile of bricks that suddenly moved. It was a second before he realized his mistake. His man was right in front of him, though only a fraction of his face could be seen.
He started for him when a flash of pain erupted in his chest. His hand moved up to investigate but came away sticky with blood.
He was hurt though he took comfort that he could still move, but he couldn’t say the same for his brother-in-arms who was buried beneath those rocks.
His eyes slid upward, quickly assessing the scene. What remained of the buildings were stacked precariously above him. At any moment they could collapse on them.
Forcing aside his own pain, he started hauling broken bits of brick and rock, tossing them away until they formed their own pile. On and on he dug, listening for any signs of the building shifting, ignoring the cuts on his fingers and the wounds on his hands until finally, the face of Ricky Dickins appeared.
